Ready to burst
by GygyFr
Summary: OS! Matt is sick. Gabby and Kelly is trying to find what's wrong with him, and when they knows what's wrong, time is running out. I can't tell you more, but find it by reading this OS fanfic'


**Hello everybody! I hope you are all enjoying your sunday, if possible in family, that you are resting and enjoying this day to stay in pajamas (sunday tradition at home).**

 **Anyway, I will be busy for a while with the university: find a 6 month intership, exams, some course paperworks, andd it takes all my free time and my WE grrr! So I sill can update 'this thing that binds us' because I have some chapters on my hands, but not the others (and I'm sorry).**

 **So to comfort you, I made this OS for you!**

 **History: Matt is sick. Gabby and Kelly is trying ti find what's wrong with him, and when they knows what's wrong, time is running out.**

 **The story takes place during the season 4: Kelly Severide is the squad 3 lieutenant again, Boden kept his post and has been cleared, the Riddle problem doesn't exist (or doesn't exist anymore, I don't know), and Patterson was stripped out of his rank but stayed on squad 3 (so under Severide's orders haha).**

 **Warning: I don't own the characters on Chicago Fire, but the OC are mine.**

 **I want to tell you something: this is a translation, made on my own (with no google translation etc...), so just my own world. I tried to make the best translation I've ever done, but I know I will still make some mistakes, so I already apologize.**

 **But I hope you will like this OS.**

 **Bonne lecture :)**

* * *

Matt woke up before his alarm could ring. He was feeling a pinched pain in his lower stomach. Maybe something that didn't pass the day before... He tried to roll on his side to turn off his alarm, but just moving was a torture. He closed his eyes, trying to focus on his breathing. When he had his head injury, the therapist taught him how to handle the pain by some breathing exercise. And it helped him highly. But not here. Nothing helped him to ease the pain. He was inhaling and exhaling as he had been taught, but the pain was still paralysing him. He gathered all the strengh he had to shout.

"GABBY!"

This only word took all his strengh. He felt his face becoming wet, espacially his forehead. He closed his eyes again, waiting for her to come in the bedroom. He clenched his fists and began to hold his breath. Seconds passed and the pain intesified. It was now unbearable. And yet he knew what it meant to habe hurt: as a firefighter, burns, cuts, and smoke inhalation were very common. His alarm began to ring, indicating 7am. But the problem was he didn't have strengh anymore to turn it off. So he let the alarm ring, hoping that Gabby or Kelly would come as soon as possible to see why he didn't turn off his alarm. His face was moistened and slightly, he curled up, as to deal more easily with the pain that was lacerating his stomach. But it didn't work anymore. He couldn't move anymore, he could do nothing. He just closed his eyes because of this unbearable and intense pain.

* * *

On the other side of the apartment, in the kitchen, Gabby and Kelly were dressed, ready to go to work, and were making breakfast. Gabby had dark pockets under her eyes, which worried Kelly.

"You didn't sleep?"

She rested the cup of coffee she had in her hand, closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

"You don't sleep near a locomotive".

Kelly began to laugh.

"That bad?"

He knew Matt well, but he didn't know he snored, loud enough to keep her awake a great part of the night, even all night. Gabby stared at him and showed him she wasn't in a good mood to laugh after the night she spent. Kelly took the opportunity to look at his watch on his right wrist.

"Speak of the devil, he takes time to shower and come to eat".

"What time?"

"7:30am".

Gabby swallowed her saliva. This wasn't Matt to take more than twenty minutes to shower, get dressed and come to eat his beakfast. She put the spatula on the stove, and turned to Kelly.

"I go to see what he's doing. Take my position Kelly".

"Yeah, no problem".

He got up, walked to Gabby, took the spatula while Gabby made her way to the bedroom, worried. She opened the door slowly, in case he had fallen asleep again, and saw that the curtains were still closed. She turned her head and locked her gaze on the bed. The sheets were a mess, but there was a form inside the sheets. First of all, she went to the bathroom, noticing no sound from it. But there was nobody. So Matt fell asleep again. She returned to the bedroom and opened the curtains. She realised that his alarm was still ringing, and in fact he hadn't woken. But she approached the bed, she sat and put off the sheets that were on him. A pool of sweat was invading his forehad and his entire face. She passed her left hand on his forehead, then his cheeks. Matt had fever, a lot of fever. She saw that he was frowning slightly and was breathing with difficulty. She began to shake him gently.

"Matt... Wake up".

But he didn't move. He was still, seeming deeply asleep. So she shook him more strongly.

"Matt... Matt?"

She shook him, harder and harder, but he didn't respond at all. She took one of her hands and made a fist, then shoot it on his sternum fo make him react.

"Matt, wake up Matt!"

she heard a weak and almost inaudible groan from him. She saw his mouth open but no sound, no word came out his lips. She turned her head to the door while she was still rubbing his sternum.

"KELLY!"

She screamed as loud as possible to Kelly could hear her, while Matt gathered all the strengh still inside of him to utter even one word. Just one word.

"Stop..."

Gabby turned her head to this still body, Matt's body, and stopped to rub his sternum. She placed her hands on his iced cheeks.

"Matt, make an effort please. Open your eyes!"

But Matt had used all his strengh to pronounce this word. He needed more time, much more time. Because the strengh he still had, he was using it to deal with the unbearable pain that was still torturing him. He didn't have the strengh to move anymore, or even breathe normally. Or at last almost normally. She turned her head again toward the door and screamed louder.

"KELLY!"

She heard Matt groaning again, and decided to have her attention on him. She still have her hands on his cheeks, ready to slap tham carefully to make him open his eyes. She saw that this groan was a scream of pain. A mayday.

"Matt, focus on my voice okay? Where is the pain?"

She let him some seconds to reunite his strengh and talk, but no words came out of his mouth. His breathing was worrying her. But what was annoying her the more, it was Kelly who didn't answered her calls.

"Matt? Stay with me, I'll be right back in a second".

She got up, hearing Matt screaming of pain again, and ran to the leaving room, where she grabbed her phone. Kelly, who was looking at her with insistance, began to frown. He almost never saw Gabby in such a distress, and the only times she was, it was when Matt had been hurt. He turned to the stove, put the spatula on the kitchen plan, then walked toward Gabby.

" _911, what's your emergency?_ "

"Uh... My boyfriend... I don't know what's wrong with him, he... He has a high fever, he's dealing with a lot of pain, he's breathing with difficulty and... And he doesn't wake up! I don't know what's wrong with him..."

With this last sentence, Gabby placed her free hand on her lips, closed her eyes and began to cry. Kelly, hearing the distress in Gabby and what she said, understood the extent of the situation.

" _Okay ma'm, I sent the closest ambulance to you. I located you. You're near him?_ "

She didn't pay attention to Kelly's look, and ran to the bedroom to be near Matt. Kelly dropped what he was doing and followed her without waiting her permission. Gabby sat again on the bed, hearing Matt screaming of pain again. She turned on the speaker, put her phone on the table, replaced her hands on his cold cheeks and began to talk to him again.

"Matt, answer me! Where is the pain?"

But again, his only answer was a desperate moan. He couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't respond to stimuli.

"He isn't responding!"

" _Tell me if his pulse is weak or fast_ ".

She took a deep breath, put two of her fingers on his carotid and waited some seconds. No need to wait ten seconds to know the answer.

"Fast, almost irregulat. Kelly, pass me a cold glove please".

Kelly stayed petrified a tenth of a second before running to the bathroom to take a glove, put it in cold water.

" _There is someone with you?_ "

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, we're three. We're firefighters".

" _You know the standard procedure then?_ "

"I was a PIC before becoming a firefighter".

Kelly came back from the bathroom and tended her the glove.

"On his forehead Kelly. His fever is too high".

Gabby turned her head to Matt and her phone while Kelly placed carefully the glove on Matt's forehead and pressed it slightly.

"You know when the ambulance will arrive?"

She waited and answer from the man of the 911. seconds passed, and her concern grew.

" _Around four minutes out_ ".

Kelly and Gabby shared a look. She wasn't in her good mood, and it was understandable.

"What do we do Gabby?"

"Uh... We need to try to make him open his eyes and tell us where is the pain. It will help, even a little".

Kelly shook his head up to down, and saw Gabby running to the bathroom.

" _You're still there?_ "

"Yeah, yeah. Still there".

Gabby came back with the first aid kit and got out a thermometer to take his temperature. She put it on his ear and waited. It showed 102.2.

"He is at 102".

She dropped the thermometer and replaced her hands on his cheeks.

"Matt, open your eyes, Matt!"

Matt gathered almost all the staying strengh to access the request from the woman he loved. Slowly and painfully, he opened them. His eyes were burning, his vision was a blurr and he couldn't concentrate on something.

"Matt? Where is the pain?"

This time, he didn't have the strengh to talk or move, so he closed his eyes almost immediately. He tried though, even if it hurted him.

"S-st..."

"Stomach? It's your stomach?"

Matt frowned slightly, trying to find a way to tell her it's was indeed his stomach. Gabby grabbed his arms to place them along his body. Another scream of pain took his throat and embrassed the room to reach Gabby and Kelly's ears. She knew it hurted him, but it was inevitable. Then she grabbed his legs and did the same. Again, a scream of pain, louder this time, resonated on the bedroom. She lifted his shirt, dirted by his sweat that was envelopping him and saw something that wasn't good at all.

"Intestinal spasms. Oh my God I think he has a peritonitis!"

"A what?"

Kelly didn't know what it was. And it worried him when he saw that it made Gabby panic.

"His abdominal cavity is einflamed and I don't know why".

Seeing that the spasma were more intense on the right side than the left, she began to palpate the area from left to right. Arrived to the right extremity of his pelvis, Matt shouted to death and tried to move, but he couldn't do it.

"It's his appendicis. It's an appendicitis and it inflamed his peritoneum!"

" _Ambo is on your street and will arrive in less than a minute_ ".

After several calm seconds mixed with the screams of pain of Matt, they began to hear the sirens of the ambulance. Kelly stood up.

"I'll be right back. I will bring them in".

Gabby couldn't help but nod, too much focused Matt's shape, the man she loved more than everybody. Kelly ran out of the room, opened the door and left the apartment to come near the ambulance who were parking it. A sight of relief escaped his mouth.

"Chout, McAuley... Thank God. It's Matt".

"What is it? He burned his hand?" Chout tried to joke.

Kelly turned hurrily his head to gave him the look. Chout was always smiling, but this time, he swallowed his saliva and stopped to smile almost immediately. McAuley grabbed his medical bag, as well as Chout's, then a backboard. When he saw the look from Kelly and the distress on his face and his voice, he knew it wasn't a simple injury. And he worked with Casey often enough to know that even badly injured, it didn't stop him. Chout grabbed his bag, and the two paramedics followed Kelly inside the building. He directed them to the bedroom.

"Dawson".

She lifted her head and faced Chout and McAuley. She had tears in her eyes, ready to rool on her cheeks.

"I think he lost consciousness".

The two paramedics sat on the bed. Gabby helped them as she could.

"Pulse is fast, almost irregular. Fever at 102 less than four minutes ago. I think he has appendicitis and he declared a peritonitis: intestinal spasms, and difficulty to breathe".

Chout grabbed the oxygen tank and put it on the bed, near Matt. He attached a non-rebreather mask on it, pushed the oxygen at full and hooked Matt to it. Gabby helped him to pass the elastic behind his neck to maintain the mask. McAuley cut his shirt and placed three patches on his chest: on the left, on the right and on his left flank. He hooked them to the monitor and activated it. Then he hooked him to a BP cuff.

"Pulse at 134, BP at 17 over 12, sature at 96%".

"He needs fluids".

Chout grabbed an IV and planted the needle on one of his vein then opened the valva of the pocket of fluids.

"We can't give him morphine, it could make it worse".

Kelly couldn't help but stay paralysed. He was out of himself, disconnected and frightened. It was one of the first time that Kelly was so much scared. And Gabby too. In silence, she was crying. Tears were rolling from her eyes to her cheeks, and falling on the sheets or on Matt.

"Let get him on the backboard and bring him to Lakeshore".

Chout grabbed the backboard and put it on the bed.

"Kelly? We will need you", Gabby explained, looking at him.

Kelly startled and ans fixed Gabby. He nodded and came near Matt. His legs were leafs, trembling as never. Together, they rollled Matt on his left side while Chout placed the backboard under him. Then they placed him carefully on it. Chout left the room and the apartment to place the stretcher near the door so they could place the backboard on it and ease the transport. The three colleagues avvired after several endless seconds and placed Matt on the stretcher, then the ambo. Gabby climbed inside while Kally was waiting outside.

"I will call Boden, uh... Tell him what is happening and uh... I will come later at the hospital".

Gabby nodded while Kelly closed the door and slapped them to sign they could go. McAuley turn on the ambulance and took the road to Lakeshore.

* * *

At the firehouse, the shift began a fex minutes ago and everyone were in the briefing room. Eveybody were looking each other, because their two lieutenants and Gabby weren't still here, and this wasn't a habit. Chief Boden arrived at this precise moment to begin his speech. He opened his mouth, then closed it, seeing the worried expression from his men. He looked at the room, then frowned.

"Where are Casey, Severide and Dawson?"

"Still no news chief", Hermann explained.

Boden sighed, then closed his eyes. His phone vibrated. He lifted a finger to his men as to tell them to shut up, grabbed his phone and looked who was calling him. His gaze changed when he saw Kelly's name on the screen. He picked up and put his phone on his ear.

"Kelly".

" _Chief..._ "

Boden understood immediately that something was wrong, just with the sound of his voice.

"What is it Kelly?"

The firefighters sat up straight, all focused on a part of the conversation between their chief and Kelly.

" _It's Matt. Gabby is bringing him to Lakeshore_ ".

He know perfectly that for Matt, tolerate the fact of going to the hospital as a patient, either he was unconscious, or it was bad, or both.

"How bad?"

" _Uh... Gabby talked about... About peritonitis and... And appendicitis but... I don't know, I..._ "

"Severide, Kelly... Stay calm and try and speak slowly".

Boden could hear his breathing through the phone, because he was breathing heavily, panicking.

" _This is bad_ ".

Boden bit his lips.

"You said Lakeshore?"

" _Yeah. I... I wanted to tell you before... Beofre going there. Gabby needs support_ ".

"Okay, I'll be right there in ten minutes. We'll meet here okay?"

" _No need chief_ ".

"It's an order Kelly".

Boden waited for an answer.

" _Copy that chief_ ".

He hung up and turned to his audience.

"Capp, you're in charge of squad 3, Hemrann of truck 81. If you need a batalion chief, call the firehouse 87".

"What's happening chief?", Hermann asked, a little scared.

Boden stopped moving, placed his hands on his hips. He sighed slightly and lowered his head.

"Casey was brought to Lakeshore. As I understood, it's bad but I don't know more. I will tell you about the situation when I will be there. But now, we do as I said. Understood?"

Everyone had their mouth opened, but didn't answered. It was one of the way to tell 'copy that chief' at the firehouse when Boden wasn't in a good mood to discuss. And today, he wasn't in a good day, far from this. He left the room and took his car while his men stayed here, still in the briefing room.

* * *

In the ambulance, Matt was still unconscious. Chout was hooking him to a third bag of fluids to keep him hydrated because he was losing so much water due to his fever.

"His heartrate is still increasing. Almost 180", Gabby shouted.

"He's going on v-tach. We need to bring him down to a normal rhythm".

Chout searched something in his bag and grabbed an ampty syringe and a bottle. Then he turned to Gabby.

"He is intolerant or allergic to beta-blockers?"

"I don't know, I don't think so. We never had to administrate them into his system".

Chout nodded slightly, he filled the syringe then injected it into the IV. He looked the screen of the monitor to see a change.

"His heatrate is decreasing. 120".

Gabby let escape a slight sigh of relief while Chout prepared another syringue, if the first dose hadn't been sufficient. But, something went wrong.

"Chout!"

Chout, lost in his thoughts, startled and looked Gabby.

"His pulse dropped sharply, he is in bradycardia!"

"Oh God, he is intolerent to beta-blockers!"

Chout turned to the front of the ambulance and shouted with all his strengh.

"McAuley, ETA?!"

"We're at the hospital!"

Chout turned while McAuley stopped the ambulance. The door opened, and two doctors and a nurse appeared. Chout began to explain Matt's condition.

"Thrity-six year old mal, appendicitis and possible peritonitis. Unconscious on scene, BP at 18 over 12, in bradycardia at 37 after a dose of acebutolol, sature at 95% with the non-rebreather mask, fever at 104 three minutes ago. Three bags of fluids passed".

When he shouted what they did with his colleagues, they took the direction of the hallway.

"Bring him to trauma 3. Go find me the ultrasound and call the surgeon".

The nurse who was with them ran to go find the ultrasound. One of the doctors prevented Gabby to go further by placing one of his hands just in front of her. She stopped just behind the room 3, which closed on her. Despite this, she could look at the window to see what was happening in there. The doctors and the two paramedics placed Matt on the hospital bed and replaced the monitor from the ambulance to one of the ER.

"An epi-shot right now, and I need this ultrasound!"

The nurse came back at the same time avec the ultrasound. The doctor who seemed to be the chief grabbed the tube of gel and placed a huge dose of it on his lower belly then applied the probe. The two doctors and the nurse looked the screen while their chief stopped on the right of his pelvis.

"His appendix is ready to burst. Call the OR, we need to bring him down now!"

"No OR is free doctor".

"What?"

One of them turned to the nurse who brought the new. She startled and seemed terrified.

"T-the surgeon is ready b-but uh... There is no free room".

"Then call him again and bring him up to the ER. We need to operate here. If his eppendix exploses, it will probably kill us".

The nurse nodded and came out again.

"Push etomidate and intubate him before the surgeon will come. And prepare all the material needed".

"On it".

The doctor removed the gloves and got out of the room. He walked toward the paramedics who brought his patient and the woman whowas with them.

"You're family?"

Despite the fact she saw him came near them, she startled a little and face the doctor.

"Yeah, uh... I'm his girfriend. It's an appendicitis right?"

The doctor opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say, so he closed it and frowned.

"I'm a firefighter and a former PIC".

"Oh, it explains everything".

Gabby crossed her arms, waiting for an answer from the doctor. After several seconds of intense calm, the doctor got out of his thoughts.

"Sorry yeah. Your boyfriend. Uh... His appendix is ready to explode but no OR is free. We called the surgeon to get on trauma 3 to do the operation, because it's an emergency operation: his peritoneum is beginning to be inflamed and his fever is too high. It passed to 106 and we have trouble to keep his vitals stable. We will run tests to know why he is intolerent to beta-blockers, as well as a course of antibiotics when the operation is over".

"I-I... I can... Uh..."

"I'm sorry ma'm but you can't come in, even if you are a firefighter or a paramedic. It's the protocole. You need to be patient. And trust you".

He gave her a smile then came back into trauma 3, where the man she loved was. When the door opened, she saw a doctor at his head, ready to put a tube down his throat. She knew it was to maintain his airway after the anesthesia, but this gave her an awfull sensation, a sensation she dreaded everytime: a shiver ran through her back, pierced her spinal cord and pulled up her neck. She felt the sensation that a very sharp knife had just planted in her stomach, and stirred. A feeling she hadn't felt for a long time, since Matt's head injury. She looked inside, seeing this doctor hooking up a ventilator to the tube that was down his throat.

"Sorry... Sorry, let me pass".

Gabby startled because of the sound of this deep voice and turned. She faced a tall doctor, tall enough to have at last two heads more than her. She planted her gaze on him, and both stopped their movements. Then she looked him from head to toe: he was a surgeon, THE surgeon. She stayed paralysed during some seconds, then moved away from the door to let him pass. All the way for him to come in the room, she glared at him. And when the door closed behind him, she took her position again and looked through the window. The nurse looked, seeing Gabby, walked to her and closed the curtains. Openmouthed and shocked, no sound came out. She moved back, until being blocked by a wall. She slipped to the ground, gaze lost, ready to cry. The emergency door opened, and Kelly appeared with a sad and worried look, out of breath. He looked everywhere around him, then saw Gabby on the ground, her arms around her legs.

"Gabby".

Surprised, she lifted her head and saw Kelly, running to her. He kneed, silently asking her what happened since they left the apartment.

"He... It's an appendicitis and a peritonitis".

She closed her eyes, letting escape a small tear.

"They couldn't bring him to the OR so uh... So the surgeon came inside and... And they're operating here right now".

Kelly opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say to reassure her. So he grabbed her forearm, and with his other hand, lifted her head so she could face him.

"Come on, we're going to the waiting room. Chief Boden will come soon".

He tried to stay calm, as he had learnt, but knowing that his best friend who he was considering as a brother, was in the operating table with an appendix ready to explode, this wasn't reassure him at all.

"Chief?"

"I called him sooner and he wanted to come. I think Capp gets me covered, and Hermann gets Matt Covered. Well, it would be logical".

Gabby shook her head left to right, but didn't move an inch. Kelly patted her forearm.

"Come on. There is nothing you can do, but wait. And you want to wait here? You should sit down the time we don't have news. Come on".

He encouraged her to get up and accompany him, but she did what she could do better in this situation, in a situation that was greatly overwhelming her: cry. She collapsed, tears in her eyes, burying her head in her legs surrounded by her arms. Kelly got to his knees in front of her and embraced her as he could. He heard her crying, screaming in despair, and he could do nothing. It tore his heart.

"Everything will be fine Gabby. He has overcomed much bigger important and difficult obstacles".

He tried to find the words to reassure her.

"It's not a little appendicitis that will scare him!"

He heard Gabby giggle slightly through the tears, then she straightened slowly, smiling.

"You're right Kelly".

She took a deep breath, then exhaled deeply.

"We need to stay strong. It's a simple operation".

Kelly helped her to stand, and together, they came in the waiting room.

* * *

In the room 3, after closing the door behind him and on the nose of the woman who was looking at him, the surgeon ran toward his patient.

"So?"

The nurse startled, and faced the doctor.

"Thrity-six year old male, appendix ready to burst and peritonitis. Fever at 106, pulse stable at 140, BP at 18 over 13".

"Okay, go lower the curtains of this door. I want to to be interrupted during the operation by his girlfriend".

He turned his head to another doctor.

"Push 10 milligrams of propanolol".

"We can't inject beta-blockers. He seems intolerent to them. We're running some tests to know if it's beta-blockers or the beta-blocker injected".

The surgeon bit his lips.

"In that case, we can try antiarythmics. A dose of norpace. It will at last decrease his heartrate to 80".

"Doctor, no offense, but he could have hypotension with it".

"You prefer a hypotension or a too high heartrate?"

the doctor didn't know what to answer. The surgeon was right, they needed to lower his heartrate.

"And.. And defibrillation?"

The surgeon turned his head to this voice, looked the man who proposed this solution, and glared at him.

"With an appendix ready to explode? You want to kill the patient?"

the doctor opened his mouth, but closed it soon after. The surgeon sighed and closed his eyes.

"We can begin?"

The nurse injected the antiarythmic into the IV and nodded.

"He's ready doctor".

"Alright. Put iodine on the area and I need a scalpel".

The doctor came on the other side of his inert patient, facing the surgeon, put iodine on the area while the nurse passed a scalpel.

"Be ready to aspirate when I will have opened. And prepare a retractor".

* * *

Chief Boden ran from outside to the ER, searching his men around him. He locked his gaze to the waiting room. He walked toward the door and saw Gabby and Kelly, in the arms of each other, trying to boost the morale of each other.

"Kelly, Gabby".

They startled and looked at the door. Kelly stood up almost immediately and walked toward him.

"Chief".

He tended his hand, but Boden took a step forward and hugged Kelly, showing him he was with him. Gabby, still a little shicked, stood up later and also moved to Boden. Their hug took more time. Boden lifted his head to Kelly.

"I didn't understand on the phone".

"Uh... He didn't wake this morning and... He was covered of sweat, screaming of pain and he couldn't talk because of the high pain. His appendix is inflamed, ready ti explode and... His peritoneum is inflamed too. so... Well, I don't know..."

He shook his head, closing his eyes. It was hard to put words on what he heard and saw. But Gabby continued.

"The surgeon is operatin on him in the ER, no free OR and... Well, you know. We have to wait".

Boden ordered them to sit, seeing they were ready to collapse on the ground in every moment.

* * *

In the room, it was a huge anthill.

"Suction... Damn, his appendix is beginning to burst. We need to hurry".

The surgeon tended his hand to the nurse so she could pass him a clamp. She did, then prepared another one.

"We need more light and more suction. Otherwise his appendix will explode before we can fully extract it".

* * *

In the waiting room, Kelly, Gabby and Boden were waiting. More than an hour and still no news, nothing. Kelly stood up, sat down and redid the same gesture again and again. This was annoying Gabby, but what could she do? She knew that Kelly and Matt were very close, as brothers, so she couldn't blame him to be on edge. Boden was calmer, trusting the surgeon, trusting that everything was going to be just fine. He called his men at the firehouse to give them news sooner, and they wanted to come, help their borther. But boden ordered them to stay at the firehouse, ready to serve the city and help its inhabitants, to Casey. So reluctantly, they obeyed, but this didn't help them. And Gabby, she was playing with her inches, turned them around each other. She didn't know how to handle this situation.

"Family of Matthew Casey?"

The three firefighters startled, stood up and faced the same doctor who fought Gabby sooner. He was out of his surgical gown. Again, this same doctor and Gabby shared a dark gaze, full of anger.

"Gabby".

Boden came between them, seeing the tension between us. Knowing she couldn't win this time, she looked away.

"How is Matt?", Kelly asked, worry.

The doctor turned his head to him, and smiled slightly.

"It was touch and go. His appendix began to burst when we saw it, and it totally bursted when we got it out of his abdominal cavity. We were lucky. Due to the perforation and the peritonitis, we had to do a peritoneal lavage, so we made two incisions: on on his right iliac fossa, and one in the middle on his abdomen. But he's out of the wood. We will keep him a day or two in ICU because of the peritonitis but everything will be fine".

Three sighs of relief invaded the waiting room. They were so relieved so they sat, almost out of strengh. But a question came on Gabby's lips. She knew what it meant.

"And uh.. How it will happen in the coming days? I mean... Matt is quite unbearable when he has nothing nothing to do and remains in bed. He is impossible".

The doctor, astonished by the fact that she talked to him directly, after what had happened between them, let escape a deep exhalation.

"I see... Well, he will have to remain on antibiotics for about a week. He can't eat for now: we have to wait until his intestines resume normal activity. Meanwhile, we feed him intravenously. He will probably come out in a few days".

A silence grew. Kelly and Gabby didn't want to give THE question, afraid about the answer.

"And he can come back to work immediately after?", Boden asked.

"Absolutely not. Normally, after peritonitis, the patient can take a light duty after a week, then normal duty after two weeks minimum. If your friend is as stubborn as you say, then it should last longer. It depends on his work".

"He is a firefighter, lieutenant of truck 81".

The doctor inhaled deeply.

"This will be more complicated then... It depends on his recovery and his stubborn character! I will say... Two weeks before putting him in light duty, and about a month before a full return to his post? We'll see week after week how he is, but I think it would be wise on this one, don't you think?"

Kelly let escape an audible laugh.

"You don't know him! When he had his head injury, he could have lost his life, but after six weeks, he came back to work, full duty. This guy is totally stubborn! If he has nothing to do, he is a pain in the ass!"

The doctor nodded.

"I know what you mean. Firefighters, police officers and doctors are the worst patients we can have. They are stubborn, unpredictable and... The worst patients!"

Gabby smiled and lift her heas up, crossing the doctor's gaze.

"I'm sorry be have been a little abrupt earlier with you at the door. But you know our job, we are all the time running around doing operations here and there. It's stressful and tiring".

Gabby smiled a little more.

"Don't worry, it's forgiven. You were doing your job. Thanks. For saving Matt".

"My job. I have to go. Nurses are bringing him upstairs in ICU. If you want to see him I think he is awake, still groggy because of the fever, the anesthesia and the antibiotics, but he should be conscious and maybe talk. But two at the time".

Kelly and Gabby turned to Boden, who signed them to follow the surgeon.

"Go. I will call the others to give them the new".

They stood up and began to follow him. Gabby saw again this scene inside the ambulance: the tachycardia, the acebutolo shot, the bradycardia...

"Doctor? I wanted to ask. Uh... We know more about the beta-blockers? I mean... He reacted really bad to them in the ambulance".

He stopped, then turned to the two friends.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I've completely forgoten. In fact, he can support them but not in a full dose. This is why he came from a tachycardia to bradycardia really fast. A half dose will be sifficient the next time he will need them. I wrote this on his medical file, but you have to tell this to anyone who wants to inject beta-blockers into his system, but he will be okay".

He smiled, then turned and continued his road. When they arrived near Matt's room in ICU, he turned again.

"We put him near the nurse desk so we can monitor him closely, and because we had to inject an antiarythmic. It's expected to take effect for a few more hours, and with his reaction to the beta-blockers, we prefer to keep him near us, just in case".

He saw then a nurse coming out the room and stopped her.

"How is he?"

the nurse moved backward, as she was scared of the doctor. She cleared her throat and began to talk.

"He is awake, groggy because of the treatment, but he is awake. I think he is resting now".

She came to the resting room, letting the doctor, Kelly and Gabby alone in front of the door of his room.

"Come on Gabby. Lets go inside".

Slowly, she opened the door, not to wake Matt if he was indeed sleeping, as the nurse said. He was still in this bed, an IV hooked to his right arm, antibiotics, what to keep him hydrated and in form the time his intestinal transit came to a normal rhythm. Of course, what to monitor him: an EKG, an oxymeter and a BP cuff. Due to his fever, the nurses put a cold patch on his forehead, to get it down. They hooked him on a nasal canula to help him breathe corectly. She let escape a sigh. A sad sigh, but a sigh of relief tough. This sigh that invaded the room, wake Matt up, who opened his eyes slowly and painfully. His vision was a blurr because of his shape, but no need to have a good vision to know who was standing in the same room.

"Hey...", he let escape his mouth.

His mouth and throat were dry and this made him frown. Gabby approached him, took a glass and poured some water. She placed it on his lips, and stopped before the water could reach them.

"Just a few sips Matt, okay?"

He closed his eyes, tired, but he shook his head up to down. She smiled at him while he opened his mouth slightly, and water began to come down his mouth then his throat. An incredible relief occurred immediately after swallowing the first sip. He took two more sips, then pulled away his head, a sign that he wanted to stop drinking. Gabby put the glass down and sat next to Matt on the bed. She took his hand and stroked it.

"Don't do that to me again, understood?"

He fully opened his eyes, feeling his forehead and cheeks in sweat, again. He looked Gabby and sighed deeply.

"I tried... Tried to call. But... hurt".

With her free hand, she took the glove that Kelly grabbed and humidified, then slapped tenderly his cheeks to put out the sweat. Matt felt good.

"I know Matt, I know. But now, everything is going to be fine. Everything's good".

She smiled, and let Matt rest, tired due to the infection and the operation. Kelly and Gabby shared a look, full of sweet and hope. Yeah. Everything was going to be fine. No need to worry now.

* * *

 **I hope you liked to story, and you will let me some reviews (advices, good or bad feelings, insults... well, you know what I lean haha). And again, have a good sunday evening!**


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